


We'll Send a Postcard

by Meilan_Firaga



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Family Dynamics, Fix-It, Gen, Talking, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 08:57:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19225879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meilan_Firaga/pseuds/Meilan_Firaga
Summary: Every time they focus on fixing the Apocalypse they end up setting it off. Five's determined to try something different this time around.





	We'll Send a Postcard

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sevenofspade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenofspade/gifts).



Five had intended to do as his siblings requested. He’d turned back all their clocks, returned them to their misspent youths with their memories of the terrible things that would come to pass if something didn’t change, and set about with his siblings to do it better the second time around. But as time and space swirled around them doubt seated itself tightly in his mind. Sir Reginald was unchanged, after all. He would be no better father than he had ever been, and it was likely that he would only grow sharper with them when they showed their more adult temperaments. Allison was always going to mourn the daughter she’d left behind in the future—the daughter who might not exist at all with the changes they needed to make. Whatever had happened to Klaus that left him tattooed and in mourning would be even worse when trapped in the body of a child.

It wasn’t going to work. All the possible negative options overshadowed the frankly miniscule chance that they’d get it right and keep Vanya from destroying the world. So, he did a few quick calculations in his head. Luther looked over at him, ever-present optimism in his smile while the years flashed around them. Five gave him the most apologetic expression that he could manage, and then he let go of his siblings’ hands.

The pain was worse than he’d anticipated. He’d never tried something like traveling with multiple people before, and aborting the trip part of the way through was bound to cause problems. Still, he hadn’t expected that it was going to hurt quite so much. Every nerve in his body felt like it was on fire. He stayed curled in a ball on the hard surface where he landed for quite a long time before he managed to pull himself together. Finally he straightened himself out and got to his feet, shaking off the pain and packaging the guilt of abandoning his siblings once again to return to a point in the timeline.

An excellent memory led him to her apartment. A grace of good timing meant he was there just in time to watch her returning from their father’s funeral. He was sure of his own movements. He wouldn’t show up to talk to her until much later in the evening, so he had time to get in and try to make the changes now that would make all the difference.

“Five!” She answered the door with a sort of surprise that said she never got visitors, and he was kicking himself for not having noticed in the first time. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to talk to you.”

She gave a little huff of surprise and gestured for him to come in. “I would have thought you’d rather be with the others, not plain, ordinary me.”

The fact that he’d stood right here before, looking at her weary face, and hadn’t seen the desolation she felt with every breath was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. He wasn’t going to be able to twist and manipulate this sister to rearrange the world like he’d always done in the past. There was no one bullet solution here. It was time to try a tactic that he’d not considered useful for most of his long and strange life.

“But you’re not, Vanya,” he insisted, willing her to look at him. “Ordinary. You never were.” Over several pots of coffee, he told her everything. Details that he might have left out in the interest of sparing her feelings or keeping back to use at a more opportune time he shared with brutal honesty. At first, she thought he’d gone crazy. When he told her that was always possible given that he’d spent years with only Dolores for company she softened enough to keep listening. She raged at the revelation that their surrogate father had abused her so badly. She stared in shock and horror when he told her how she’d reacted when she’d learned all of this before. There were more than a few tears for what she’d done to Allison and the terrible man who’d manipulated her. By the time he told her that they couldn’t stay, that they needed to get as far away as they could to try and avoid the mess that would be made over the next few days, she had slipped into some sort of numb resignation. 

Vanya packed a bag while Five filled travel thermoses of coffee for them both. He’d recommended that they pack light, but the duffle bag of things she’d considered too precious to leave behind was even lighter than he’d expected. There was a framed picture of all of them as kids, a few books and papers, and some clothes that she prized more than others. She clutched her violin tightly in her other hand. The neuro-inhibitors that kept her powers at bay were thrown in the bag as well. He’d tried to tell her that she could leave them, but she’d insisted that they should go. She’d need to wean herself from them slowly in order to try and gain control of the colossal force he swore she could command. If their father’s actions had done any good for Vanya it was that she had learned a sort of brutal practicality by sheer necessity. 

She wouldn’t let him drive. It was probably going to take time for her to trust his child’s body to do some adult things. He was fine with that for the time being. Whatever it took to make her feel safe and in control was what he was going to do. They drove in silence for a long time, miles of highway stretching out and taking them ever farther from the city where they’d been raised. It wasn’t until they’d passed something like the fiftieth nondescript farm that Vanya spoke again.

“Why did you come for me, Five?” she asked quietly, tears in her voice even when they weren’t in her eyes. “Why not just kill me and get it over with.”

“You’re my sister,” he said simply. He shifted in the seat, draining the last of his coffee. They were going to have to stop for more. “We tried so many things before. Allison was the one who wanted to be there for you, to be like real siblings like we should have been all along. The rest of us not doing that…” he trailed off, not sure if he should give that much of the game away, but his new commitment to honesty won out. “I think that us not taking that route is what made you start the apocalypse. It’s stupid. So, I’m your brother now like I should have always been. We’ll figure out a way to make the others come around.”

They passed several more miles in a silence that was only mildly uncomfortable before Vanya suddenly snorted out a vague laugh. “And then we’ll have nice family holidays and take pictures in matching sweaters?”

“Only if we don’t let Klaus pick the sweaters.”

“I shudder to think.”

“There’d be faux leather and fishnet.”

“Now you’re just being cruel.”

The open road and a suddenly warm rapport stretched out before them. They turned on the radio, sang along to a few tunes, and stopped for terrible fast food and even worse coffee. Just siblings on a road trip. For a while they could forget that the apocalypse and any number of Time Agents would be hunting them. They had sibling rivalry and affection to sort out before they could do more than react to all of that.

Back in the city, Allison found a note addressed to her on Vanya’s fridge.

> _ Allison, _
> 
> _ You won’t remember the details, but you were right. The thing we’ve always been missing isn’t team cohesion or whatever. It’s treating each other like family. Time’s a fickle thing, and I’ll never be able to explain it all like this so I promise to give you all the details when everything’s settled. Tell the guys to go to therapy. Talk it out. We’ve got the Apocalypse and we’ll send a postcard. _
> 
> _ -Five _

Postcards started arriving at the Academy after a week. They were from all over and always signed by both of them. At first, Diego and Luther both insisted on trying to find their siblings. They were never successful. Ever watchful for the Apocalypse, they were both continually disappointed when nothing further happened around them. Months passed. A few weeks before Christmas, all the Hargreeves children received invitations to a family holiday at an address in the middle of Montana. 

The invitations came with matching sweaters.


End file.
